Shadow Master
Banned
Let’s say that Paradox Interactive, who made games like Hearts of Iron, was to have embarked upon a plan to make much more limited, specialized, war games, for the purpose of making profits, being fun, and including huge wealth of historical information, that would allow players to become experts at how historical wars were fought, why the OTL forces were deployed the way they were, and why those forces were created in the first place? Develop a game engine that does all that, and allows for easy modding, and for playing out alternate history battles, with not only historical forces, but alternately constructed forces as well.
I have in mind here the Battle of Jutland (May 31 - June 1, 1916) as an example. Take the BoJ as a starting point, focus entirely on the movement of ships, and abstract away all land not costal nor upon navigable waterways. Instead, include everything needed to bring into focus all of the historical factors of real world geography, so things like restricted waterways, shallows, tides and currents are all made accurate. Next, make weather and visibility conditions as accurate as possible. Fog during the day, reducing visibility? No problem. High winds grounding your zeppelin forces? No problem.
Make factors, like the location, physical constraints, and costs of naval bases and shipyards as detailed and as accurate as possible. The same for Harbors, canals, and navigable rivers. Include detailed information for making improvements to infrastructure, and geography, both in terms of resources and times.
Include historically accurate locations where all major shipyards were constructed, as well as which major warships were built where, when, and how quickly. Assume that every major naval weapons type from 1900-1920 is possible to research and develop, build and deploy, from smoke screens and minefields, torpedo attacks, close in slugfests to long range plunging fire duels.
Finely, develop a very good ‘cyber simulator’ that allows players to not just build alternate mixes of historical forces, but to create their own units, weapons and technologies.
So, with all of that, and working from a POD not before 2002, what would be likely to be changed by now in the following areas:
Alternate History forums and websites; would such games have had time enough to make their presence felt if the modding community could program in oft repeated mistakenly held beliefs, by allowing players to play out battles and campaigns that were never going to work? Sealion comes to mind here.
What about the Game industry itself; would such learning games have had a chance to make themselves felt, such that they could have started becoming mainstreamed now? Could such games find their way into public schools, and a way of teaching by way of playing? One would still have tests and exams, but with the development of better and better, more and more realistic games, could this become a powerful tool for education now and into the future?
Any thoughts?
I have in mind here the Battle of Jutland (May 31 - June 1, 1916) as an example. Take the BoJ as a starting point, focus entirely on the movement of ships, and abstract away all land not costal nor upon navigable waterways. Instead, include everything needed to bring into focus all of the historical factors of real world geography, so things like restricted waterways, shallows, tides and currents are all made accurate. Next, make weather and visibility conditions as accurate as possible. Fog during the day, reducing visibility? No problem. High winds grounding your zeppelin forces? No problem.
Make factors, like the location, physical constraints, and costs of naval bases and shipyards as detailed and as accurate as possible. The same for Harbors, canals, and navigable rivers. Include detailed information for making improvements to infrastructure, and geography, both in terms of resources and times.
Include historically accurate locations where all major shipyards were constructed, as well as which major warships were built where, when, and how quickly. Assume that every major naval weapons type from 1900-1920 is possible to research and develop, build and deploy, from smoke screens and minefields, torpedo attacks, close in slugfests to long range plunging fire duels.
Finely, develop a very good ‘cyber simulator’ that allows players to not just build alternate mixes of historical forces, but to create their own units, weapons and technologies.
So, with all of that, and working from a POD not before 2002, what would be likely to be changed by now in the following areas:
Alternate History forums and websites; would such games have had time enough to make their presence felt if the modding community could program in oft repeated mistakenly held beliefs, by allowing players to play out battles and campaigns that were never going to work? Sealion comes to mind here.
What about the Game industry itself; would such learning games have had a chance to make themselves felt, such that they could have started becoming mainstreamed now? Could such games find their way into public schools, and a way of teaching by way of playing? One would still have tests and exams, but with the development of better and better, more and more realistic games, could this become a powerful tool for education now and into the future?
Any thoughts?